Monday, August 3, 2015

Week 3: St Peters, MO

Okay so Missouri is awesome!! It is definitely a huge change from Idaho but I love it! Sorry I didn't email yesterday like normally, my P-Day is on Monday but since it was Labor Day the library was closed!! So here I am :)

On Tuesday we left the MTC at around 5am and took a train to Salt Lake and flew out from there! I got to call home at the airport which was pretty fun! Payphones are pretty cool but confusing. I wonder how many people have touched those keypads... but yeah it was great! We were in a group of about 18 missionaries all going to St. Louis so that was definitely a party! I also saw Trent Cichos from Rexburg at the airport so that was fun and unexpected haha!!

When we got there it was so dang hot!! Like 95 or something and we were in our suits so wow it was sweaty!! Very humid! We spent the night in the mission home which was really fun! President and Sister Morgan made the best dinner and breakfast the next day oh my gosh it was delicious!! The basement is like dedicated to keeping missionaries so there are tons of bunks and it is really cool! At nighttime we went outside and I saw a few fireflies which was really cool! They look like random little blinks of light in the darkness if that makes sense... I hope I see more!

The next day we left to our new areas! My companion is Elder Mattson and he is from West Jordan, Utah. He's 19 and has been out eight months! Also, it turns out that there are only four Spanish speaking missionaries in the whole mission including me! There is also only one Spanish area and I am not in that area at the moment unfortunately... but it is still great!

My first area is in St. Peters, Missouri and the name of the area is Dardenne Creek! It is pretty cool here. It's a city area but not huge. Look it up on Google Maps or something... but yeah I like it! Pretty much all week we've just been looking in the Area Book for potential investigators, which are people who have said we could come back sometime in the future but no one has followed up on them yet. There are a lot of them! Most of them say they aren't interested but it is still fun actually.

We have a car but were out of miles so for a few days we had to walk everywhere! I got lots of blisters but it's not a big deal they are mostly healed now haha! I like walking actually because we have met a few people on the street and in front of their houses that we wouldn't have met otherwise. Every once in a while someone will wave at us to so that's always fun too!

We have dinner appointments like every night it is awesome! Everyone makes really good food and it is just a blast. We have like one investigator right now so really we've just been trying to find people, but not much luck so far! We have met some cool people though. Yesterday we were walking by a house and there was a 50-something year old black man sitting in front of his garage with a fan and a stereo, and he gave me a big wave so I waved back and then told Elder Mattson that we looked friendly and we should go talk to him! We did and he was super nice! He said his name was Mr. Ward and that he knew all about Mormons because he had lived in Salt Lake 30 years ago!! We talked to him for a bit and he said we could come by sometime later this week! He also said he is in the process of becoming a Jehovah's Witness which is a little weird but it's all good! :)

I'm sorry if this email is too long! I have lots to talk about!!
Pretty much every night here there are huge thunderstorms!! They are so awesome, it has yet to rain and not be a lightning storm haha! I've never heard thunder so loud and the lightning lights up my room like nobody else #onedirection

Here is a random joke I remembered I heard in the MTC! It is Spanish (sorry gringos)Cual es la diferencia de una pera y la nobia de un misionero?Uno es pera y la otra no espera!!
Hahaha it's a classic! I lol everytime!

Also, my new address is:

2103 Woodale Ln.

St. Peters, Missouri 63376

Thank you everyone!! Send me stuff! I love you all, have a great week :)
Love, Elder Hayes